The question of Israel's relations with Austria's populist-right Freedom Party is about to be debated in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. The party, headed by Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, is a member of the government coalition established only a few months ago by leader of the conservative ruling Austrian People's Party, Sebastian Kurz.
The Freedom party received a number of key portfolios – foreign affairs, public security, innovation and technology – that are central to ties between Israel and Austria. Eighteen years ago, when the Freedom Party became a member of an Austrian government for the first time, Israel recalled its ambassador in prowwww. This time, it didn't.
However, the Israeli government has decided to refrain from direct ties with Freedom Party ministers, including Vice Chancellor Strache, until it can fully assess the party's current positions and the steps it has taken to detach itself from the right-wing extremist elements in its own ranks. As part of its attempt to address its problematic past, the party leadership decided to set up a committee of historians with a mandate to research the past ties of "Freedomites" to Nazis and neo-Nazis. Still, the party recently found itself embarrassed by anti-Semitic poems that were published in booklets from its affiliated student group.
Strache – who has visited Israel a few times and publicly defended Israeli positions – recently sat down with Israel Hayom and expressed regret that there are no official ties between his party and Israel.
"It's a sad situation," Strache says, noting that he learned about Israel's decision "through the media."
Strache said that the Israeli government was in contact with Freedom Party ministers via officials in the various government ministries.
"I hope that in the near future we'll be able to normalize relations. We need to have faith. We need to create that faith and make it visible," he said.
A week ago, Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, said that while the Freedom Party's positions has changed somewhat, the party still needed to cut itself off from its past completely.
"A distinction should be made: If we're talking about confronting the past, for 13 years as party leader I led a clear policy. I took steps when action was needed. In cases of inappropriate behavior, party members were ousted. And not just with us – in other parties, as well."
Strache said he felt it was "sad" that there were still elements of the past that "had not been dealt with," as well as growing anti-Semitism among Muslim immigrants and refugees, "not only in Austria, but throughout Europe."
Strache is calling for the matter to be addressed "with sensitivity, without slapping on political or party labels."
"I've made it clear – there is no place for anti-Semites in the Freedom Party. For us, the memory of the Holocaust is an obligation and a responsibility for the present and the future. I stand by that. However, I experience repeated sweeping, unjustified accusations against the party," he said.
When asked if he would be willing to add an Israeli historian to his party's historical research committee, Strache said "everyone is invited to help."
Israel Hayom asked Strache how it was possible that in modern-day Austria, some people were still calling to "give it gas … we can still make it to the seventh million."
"It's completely disgusting. But you need to know what stands behind it. The original song mocks the Nazis. … The awful thing is that someone added these horrifying lines to the original song. It has to be condemned and rejected."
Strache has worked to eliminate the Nazi element from his party. Still, new incidents continue to surface of pro-Nazism among certain members.
"In any society, there is a small percentage of people like that. Sadly, this is the reality, in every place, in every association, in every party. But we need to say loudly and clearly: We will not tolerate it."
When asked what Israel symbolized in his eyes, Strache replied, "Israel is a state that was built by people who arrived there voluntarily, but also by people who fled there because of Nazism and the Holocaust – people who were forced to deal with a focused murder industry. They all established a flourishing state in the Middle East. The country was founded in a place that people have been fighting wars over for thousands of years – the Babylonians, the Romans, the Arabs, the Crusaders. It's a region that has a strong influence on world history.
"In Israel, Jews who were exiled from the Diaspora found a new-old homeland. So we have a responsibility when Israel's existence is threatened. There are still countries that have not recognized its right to exist and call for it to be destroyed. We have a clear responsibility to say that Israel has a right to defend itself and not remain idle when there is a threat to Israel."
